Life maps as technique in a social group work programme for young adults with HIV/AIDS / Alida Glaudina Herbst

Abstract:

South Africa is one of the countries with the fastest growing incidences of HIV/AIDS in
the world. The infection rate is worst among sexually active adolescents and young
adults and a situation is faced where one out of every four adolescents will be infected by
2005.
The emphasis in South Africa's HIV/AIDS strategies is on prevention, which is
absolutely essential. In the meanwhile, an estimated 4.2 million people are already
infected and are in need of support and counselling. Most of these people are younger
than 45 years, leaving our country with our most productive members of society living
with an epidemic for which there is no cure at the moment. Limited social work support
programmes are available to address the psycho-social needs of young adults living with
HIV/AIDS.
This research study was undertaken with the purpose of developing an intervention
programme to supply in the need for social support programmes for persons living with
HIV/AIDS. The study was undertaken in two phases, the needs assessment phase and the
programme development and evaluation phase and included the following two aims:
- To determine the psycho-social needs of young adults living with HIV/AIDS
- To develop and evaluate a social group work programme for young adults living
with HIV/AIDS where life maps are used as technique.
The first aim was achieved by the survey procedure to determine the psycho-social needs
of young adults living with the disease. The population consisted of a group of 45 young
adults living with HIV/AIDS in the Koppies and Bloemfontein geographical areas. The
needs assessment was done by means of a questionnaire and a standardized measuring
instrument, Hudson's General Contentment Scale (GCS).
As far as the second aim was concerned, a social group work programme was developed
where life maps as technique was applied. This technique is fairly unknown in social
work and has the potential to be a helpful tool in social work practice. The life maps
technique consists of seven existential questions, including theoretical principles that
originate from the self actualization theory of Maslow, the existential theory of Frankl,
the reality theory of Glasser and the gestalt theory of Perls. Life maps could be linked to
similar techniques, including life stories, life scripts and magazine photo collages.
The suggested group work programme was developed and implemented to a group of
young adults living with HIVIAIDS. The true experiment was used to evaluate the
effectiveness of the programme. The General Contentment Scale was used for pre and
post testing. The data collected from this study was mainly qualitative and was processed
by following Tesch's approach.
The most important conclusions that could be drawn from this study included a need
among young adults living with HIV/AIDS to have a meaningful life; the seven
questions asked by the life map technique supplied answers to some existential questions
of the young adult living with HIV/AIDS; the life map technique could be applied
effectively in social group work; and the general contentment of the experimental group
increased after application of the programme, while the control group's general
contentment stayed more or less the same. The latter indicated that the social group work
programme that was developed, had an influence on the general contentment of a group
of young adults living with HIV/AIDS.